Re: But I don't care about fitting into a genre

Other people's stories aren't always as easily-labelled as you might think. My original 'compressed' description for my novel was: literary fiction, fantasy setting, mystery semi-plot. That's the 'compressed' one, yeah. I've decided to categorise it as fantasy because I think that's where most people would put it, not because I necessarily think it's the best fit. But it has magic and elves and monsters, historical feel and other world, so most people think 'fantasy', either fans or detractors of the genre. It's about as far from 'farmboy in pseudo-medieval mashup-europe is orphaned, vows revenge, gets magic sword/wizard, slays dragon/wizard' as they come (not that there's anything wrong with those, but it's what people think when they hear 'fantasy'). Try describing your novel however you can to many people and see what they latch on to. 'Oh, in the future?/Oh, there's a murder?/Oh, there are dragons?/Oh, a ghost story!/Oh, nothing happens?/Oh, that sounds scary!/Oh, they fall in love? That kind of book, I see.' You might be alarmed, but if you see a pattern, just take that descriptor. Labels are for the readers, anyway! And if you hang out in that genre forum and realise that they are all writing a completely different beast, then you discard the label again. Doesn't matter :)